Happy Halloween
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Iraq Clusterfuck
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Bin Laden hurts Bush
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Watching the So-Called Liberal Media (TM), some people are getting the impression that the Bin Laden tape helps Bush. Three points, the most important last:

1) The pundits have no clue as to whether or not what they say conforms to reality. Pundits simply repeat scripts, and their pre-digested script tells them that the Bin Laden tape is good for Bush, because any reminder of terrorism is good for Bush. But this assumption is entirely without evidence. Remember: they said the same thing about Iraq, that any focus on foreign affairs AT ALL favored Bush. They were wrong.

2) The Bushites don't seem to think that it necessarily helps. Keep in mind that they have pointedly avoided mentioning Bin Laden's name for months. And especially keep in mind that they tried to prevent the airing of the tape in the first place.

First, the four tracking polls released today and thus including roughly one-third of calls after the release of the OBL tape ...

Two other national polls were released (at least that I've seen), Newsweek and Fox.

One third of the Newsweek poll was done last night. And in their poll Bush was up over Kerry by 50% to 44%. That's four points better than the Newsweek poll the previous week that had Bush over Kerry 48% to 46%.

Look, though, at the Fox poll.

Fox did one poll Wednesday and Thursday night. And then they did another poll with calls Thursday and Friday night. So the common denominator is that both polls had calls Thursday night. And half the calls in the second poll were done post-gift.

The first Fox poll had Bush up 5% (50% to 45%) and the second had him up 2% (47% to 45%).

Now, does this mean the bin Laden tape is giving a boost to Kerry? Of course, not. These are tiny changes. And it's altogether possible that this small shift is simply the result of statistical 'noise' -- numbers wobbling around within the polls' margins of error.

But it should put at least some damper on the notion that the release of the OBL tape would lead to some sudden Bush surge.

At least if the pundits are listening. "

Should the subject come up, one question should be asked: why is he still alive? He is still alive because George W. Bush decided he would rather occupy Iraq than deal with Osama Bin Laden. He is still alive because George W. Bush was "not that concerned about him."

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The Holy Gut
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George W. Bush likes to brag that he "goes with his gut" and "trusts his instincts" when making gigantic, sweeping, world-changing decisions.

He's PROUD of that. He doesn't PLAN, he doesn't THINK, he doesn't sit down and intelligently assess the situation. He thinks that's for wimps. HE just "goes with his gut."

And then when everything turns to SHIT he acts like only an ACT OF GOD could POSSIBLY have made things turn out any differently. It doesn't even OCCUR to this clown that maybe if he occasionally used his BRAIN instead of just his GUT things might have turned out better.

"I go with my instincts." That's a claim that can be made by ANY FOUR-FOOTED BEAST.

See, that why we are DIFFERENT than the animals. We have BRAINS, not just instincts. And it's a good thing to use our brains. It's not a sign of weakness to THINK. It's not a sign of weakness to use your God-given intelligence. But the idiot in the White House thinks that it IS, and he actually believes that making decisions in the same manner as a beast of the field is his SACRED DUTY. What a MORON.

The rant is ended. Go in peace.

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Penta-gone.
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The Democrat Cat has done major yeoperson's work transcribing and commenting on the train wre...umm...I mean the "press conference" with Larry DiRita on Fox News about the missing weapons.

"Can you believe the ineptitude? They wanted to quash this sucker so fast they sent someone out there to try and make sense of nothing. They don’t know anything. They can’t prove anything. They can see a possible slip up that people may actually listen to so close to the election and they’re freaking out."

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Wes Clark on Bill Maher
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"If George Bush had done his job as Commander in Chief before 9/11 we would never have had the strikes of 9/11....
The guy that had the 9/10 mindset, that was George Bush. The guy who didn't want to listen to the threat of terrorism. The guy who never held a cabinet meeting. Why didn't he call his cabinet together and introduce the Attorney General to the Director of CIA and say gentlemen I'd like you to meet each other, and please I don't want any terrorist attacks?

"But if he wants to wear the uniform, and take the glory of the men and women who are actually risking their lives in that flight suit, then he ought to understand what the command responsibility of being Commander in Chief is. When you wear that uniform, especially in the United States Navy, it's a one strike and you're out system. If you're the captain of the ship and it runs aground, they don't care whether you were on the bridge, eating lunch, asleep, chopping cedars in Texas, they don't care. You're out! They only ask one question, were you the captain on the day it ran aground? You're out."

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Bin Laden Tape
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1) Bin Laden SHOULD BE DEAD, and he got away because Bush didn't send in the troops. Just one more reason that Bush isn't qualified for the job.

2) According to the tape, 911 was a greater success than anticipated because Bush wasted time reading to children instead of responding to an attack on the United States. The person in the tape claims that Bush's inaction gave Al-Qaeda 20 more minutes than even Bin Laden believed they would have.

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Voter Suppression
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When Catherine Herold received mail from the Ohio Republican Party earlier this year, she refused it.

The longtime Barberton Democrat wanted no part of the mailing and figured that by refusing it, the GOP would have to pay the return postage.

What she didn't count on was the returned mail being used to challenge the validity of her voter registration.

Herold,who is assistant to the senior vice president and provost at the University of Akron,was one of 976 Summit County voters whose registrations were challenged last week by local Republicans on behalf of the state party.

She went to the Board of Elections on Thursday morning to defend her right to vote and found herself among an angry mob -- people who had to take time off work to defend their right to vote.

After hearing some of the protests, the board voted unanimously to dismiss all 976 challenges.

"I'm 62 years old, I've been voting for 40 years.... I think it's appalling. It's scare tactics," Herold said after her hearing.

Herold was angry when she was notified that her right to vote was being challenged.

``I felt that my voracity was being challenged, that my honor was being challenged. They basically were saying that I lied about where I lived. I resented that.''

The challengers, all older longtime Republicans -- Barbara Miller, Howard Calhoun, Madge Doerler and Louis Wray -- were subpoenaed by the elections board and were present at the hearings. Akron attorney Jack Morrison, a Republican, volunteered to represent the four.

Democratic board member Russ Pry suggested that the four could be subject to criminal prosecution for essentially making false claims on the challenge forms. The form states that making a false claim is subject to prosecution as a fifth-degree felony.

Wray filed a challenge against 25-year-old Barbara Jean DeWilde of Stow, but testified that he had no personal knowledge that DeWilde didn't live at her Stow address, other than information he received from Summit County Republican Party headquarters.

An immigrant from Jamaica, Horam, 55, said he came to the United States because ``it is the greatest democracy on the face of the earth.''

``I am disappointed in the Republican Party,'' Horam said as he left the hearing room.

``I'm really disappointed that they are trampling on people's rights and democracy and depriving them of their right to vote.''

The angry voters had the Republicans on the defensive.

``Why'd you do it?'' one challenged voter shouted out at Calhoun. ``Who the hell are you?'' the man asked.

"`What the hell do you care?" replied Calhoun, an attorney.

The time for softball is over: this is a felony, and they should demand that the authorities press charges and throw these Republicans who are trying to deprive American Citizens of their right to vote into jail where they belong.

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"Bush's misbegotten invasion of Iraq appears to have achieved what Saddam did not: putting dangerous weapons in the hands of terrorists and creating an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraqi and American officials cannot explain how some 760,000 pounds of explosives were spirited away from a well-known site just 30 miles from Baghdad. But they were warned. Within weeks of the invasion, international weapons inspectors told Washington that the explosives depot was in danger and that terrorists could help themselves "to the greatest explosives bonanza in history." - New York Times Editorial

Thanks. It shows how messed up the press is that I didn't even KNOW about these stories, and I've been hogging news like an ink junkie.

What seems to be missing from all the reporting about the missing weapons is that, despite what we were told, the Bushies obviously didn't think there were any WMDs upon going in. If they did, they would have searched and secured the weapons sites.

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Busted?
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If Kerry is elected, will Cheney & Company go to jail?

The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.

The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the Bush administration showed favoritism to Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company.

Now let's wait for the new lie that they will make up in an attempt to explain THIS away.

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The defense crumbles.
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And Bush still tries to attack the messenger rather than own up to error.

Incompetence. Frightening, dangerous incompetence.

"A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew in Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein was in the area where tons of explosives disappeared, and may have videotaped some of those weapons.>

"The missing explosives are now an issue in the presidential debate. Democratic candidate John Kerry is accusing President Bush of not securing the site they allegedly disappeared from. President Bush says no one knows if the ammunition was taken before or after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003 when coalition troops moved in to the area.

"Using GPS technology and talking with members of the 101st Airborne Division, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has determined the crew embedded with the troops may have been on the southern edge of the Al Qaqaa installation, where the ammunition disappeared. The news crew was based just south of Al Qaqaa, and drove two or three miles north of there with soldiers on April 18, 2003.

"During that trip, members of the 101st Airborne Division showed the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS news crew bunker after bunker of material labelled "explosives." Usually it took just the snap of a bolt cutter to get into the bunkers and see the material identified by the 101st as detonation cords.

"We can stick it in those and make some good bombs." a soldier told our crew.

Soldiers who took a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew into bunkers on April 18 said some of the boxes uncovered contained proximity fuses.

There were what appeared to be fuses for bombs. They also found bags of material men from the 101st couldn't identify, but box after box was clearly marked "explosive."

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A new low
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Rudy Giuliani - who has become the worst sort of Bush whore - actually decided that the best defense for the missing weapons was to blame the troops.

"No matter how you try to blame it on the president the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?"

Hey, Rudy, you bumbling idiot - we are criticizing BUSH, not the troops. If those sites weren't secured it's because THOSE IN CHARGE didn't issue orders to secure them. The troops don't make the rules, you pathetic, amoral jackass.

There is NO depth so deep and no sewage so filthy that Bush and his minions will not plumb it.

Bush's final campaign ad - appropriately titled "Whatever It Takes" - uses Photoshop on the picture to make the small crowd look like a large one.

Not a big deal, but it's sort of emblematic of the way this administration falsifies reality when reality differs from their wishful thinking.

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"About a year ago, when things weren't going so well in my campaign, somebody called a radio talk show and they said, thinking they were just cutting me right to the quick, they said 'John Kerry won't be the president until the Red Sox win.' Well, we're on our way." - John Kerry

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Bush is Full of Qaqaa
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What is George W. Bush so afraid of?

His reaction to the revelation that 377 tons of munitions have been stolen has been very interesting.

He has openly refused to discuss it. Instead of addressing the questions, he has bashed those who have questioned it. As though the problem isn't the fact that weapons are missing, the problem is that people are mentioning it.

Look at this video. When a reporter asks Bush about the weapons ("Who's responsible for the weapons missing in Iraq, Mr. President?") the smile disappears from his face and his eyes, and frankly, he looks worried. He also clearly hears the question and clearly ignores it. He pretends he didn't hear it. He look like a happy man - until he hears that question. Then he looks scared.

I think Bush is worried because he knows exactly when those weapons disappeared. He pretends that he is launching an investigation when there is no need for an investigation: he already knows what happened, and it's damning.

Here's what he said:

At this ballistic missile site on November 10th, we saw a cargo truck preparing to move ballistic missile components.

At this biological weapons-related facility on November 25th, just two days before inspections resumed, this truck caravan appeared -- something we almost never see at this facility and we monitor it carefully and regularly.

At this ballistic missile facility, again, two days before inspections began, five large cargo trucks appeared, along with a truck-mounted crane, to move missiles.

We saw this kind of housecleaning at close to 30 sites. Days after this activity, the vehicles and the equipment that I've just highlighted disappear and the site returns to patterns of normalcy. We don't know precisely what Iraq was moving, but the inspectors already knew about these sites so Iraq knew that they would be coming.

The Al Qaqaa site is HUGE (picture here). Are we to believe that they were monitoring all these sites carefully and regularly, but they HAVEN'T been monitoring what may be the largest weapons site in Iraq since the occupation began? Are we supposed to believe that they were all over it like flies on Qaqaa, but they've been completely ignoring it ever since?

Powell showed us all those photos of all those sites, taken just a few weeks apart: "here is the site now, and here it is two weeks later."

Well, where are the overhead photos of all these sites since the occupation began?

If they monitored known weapons sites carefully and regularly, which they claimed they were doing, it is not POSSIBLE that they don't know when those weapons were disappeared.

It may be the only time Bush has ever been honest about what he thinks of the American People.

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Bush supports Kerry
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"For a political candidate to jump to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief." - George W. Bush

Statement from Wesley Clark:

Today George W. Bush made a very compelling and thoughtful argument for why he should not be reelected. In his own words, he told the American people that “…a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your Commander in Chief.

President Bush couldn’t be more right. He jumped to conclusions about any connection between Saddam Hussein and 911. He jumped to conclusions about weapons of mass destruction. He jumped to conclusions about the mission being accomplished. He jumped to conclusions about how we had enough troops on the ground to win the peace. And because he jumped to conclusions, terrorists and insurgents in Iraq may very well have their hands on powerful explosives to attack our troops, we are stuck in Iraq without a plan to win the peace, and Americans are less safe both at home and abroad.

By doing all these things, he broke faith with our men and women in uniform. He has let them down. George W. Bush is unfit to be our Commander in Chief.

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"The modus operendi of this administration is to insist that it can achieve superhuman goals without breaking a sweat. Yet when all the predictable catastrophes arise, it acts as if only an act of God could possibly have prevented them." - Eric Alterman

And, as is becoming more and more common, Americans have to look to foreign news sources to find out what's going on in their own country.

The short version: A list containing the names of black voters in Florida was sent around in an email to the Executive Director of Bush's Flordia Campaign and their National Research Director.

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan -- possibly in violation of US law -- to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.

Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called "caging list."

It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.

An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: "The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day."

Challenging voters in black districts not only stops an individual voter: it backs up the line, causes chaos and intimidation and discourages MANY people from voting.

Interestingly enough, the last organization that used mass challenges to disenfranchise black voters was little organization called the Ku Klux Klan.

Now, the RNC may be planning the same thing.

And it is thoroughly illegal. In Florida, you are allowed to issue spot challenges, You are NOT allowed to target whole groups on the basis of race or poltical party.

Note: this is NOT some low-level operation. This was sent to the highest Republican operative in the Florida campaign.

According to Palast, he called 16 County Election Supervisors in Florida - and among all of them, they remembered ONE person challenged.

BUSH
Sounds like a lot of Massachusetts doubletalk to me.

KERRY
Will you stop interrupting me, you petulant little troglodyte?

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Missing Weapons Damage Control
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The latest Government Spin comes from the Pentagon, where spokesman Larry Di Rita (Curly Joe's brother, no doubt) says that they doscovered the weapons were missing back in March 2003.

Josh Marshall is doing extensive investigation on this, and pointing out that this is all damage control, with the principles making up theories as they go along and continuously contradicting themselves. It's well worth reading the whole thing.

The short version: if the government knew the weapons were missing 18 months ago, how come Scott McClellan spent the whole day yesterday saying that they just found out 10 days ago?

He's right. Our safety IS up in the air. That clown doesn't GUARD WEAPONS SITES.

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Ann Coulter was PIED.
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The HORROR! The tragedy of being hit with a custard pie! Poor Ann. Having to suffer the indignity of looking like a character in a Mack Sennett silent movie. ATTACKED by the fiendish spirit of Mabel Normand.

It's SO much more terrible than the Vice-President lying and causing maiming and death so he can make a lot of money. SO much worse. Poooor Ann. Our soldiers are losing legs and arms and eyes and dodging bullets while she applauds the policies that caused them to do so - and poor Ann has to dodge pies. How terrible.

"My friend Ann Coulter had a pie thrown at her. They missed because she turned sideways and disappeared." - Bill Maher

Kerry and Clinton
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Today in Philadelphia.

Half a million people.

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I'm not making this up
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"White House spokesman Scott McClellan played down the threat posed by explosives missing from the Al Qaqaa military installation. He said there was no threat of nuclear proliferation, and preferred to concentrate on weapons destroyed, not those lost."

So, according to the White House, leaving weapons unguarded in a war zone is acceptable, and long as they aren't nukes.

"Hey. what's the problem? Why don't you guys talk about all the stuff that WASN'T stolen?"

They are completely incompetent, and they refuse to take responsibility for ANYTHING that happens on their watch. It's NEVER a mistake, according to these clowns.

A question for anybody reading this blog who intends to vote for Bush:

What can John Kerry POSSIBLY do that is more incompetent and dangerous than leaving weapons unguarded in a war zone?

Several hundred tons of conventional explosives are missing from a former Iraqi military facility that once played a key role in Saddam Hussein’s efforts to build a nuclear bomb, the U.N. nuclear agency confirmed Monday...

The Iraqis told the nuclear agency the materials had been stolen and looted because of a lack of security at governmental installations.

Well... I guess, to be fair, that there is one thing more dangerous and incompetent that leaving conventional weapons unguarded. That would be leaving nuclear materials unguarded. No one would be stupid enough to do THAT.

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But Dick had nothing to do with it.
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The fact that he was CEO of the company that received clear favoritism is just a coincidence:

"The top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, charging that the Army granted the Halliburton Company large contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government, has called for a high-level investigation of what she described as threats to the "integrity of the federal contracting program."

The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, said that in at least one case she witnessed, Army officials inappropriately allowed representatives of Halliburton to sit in as they discussed the terms of a contract the company was set to receive. "

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Saturday, October 23, 2004

Oh. My. God.
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The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan, it just can't get to him, John Lehman, a member of the 9-11 commission, said Thursday.

Lehman's remarks echoed those made Tuesday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who asserted that the al-Qaida leader was alive and operating in the western part of Pakistan.

Bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan Mountains of the Baluchistan region, Lehman told The San Bernardino Sun after delivering a keynote speech on terrorism at Pitzer College in Claremont.

In the exclusive interview, Lehman noted, "There is an American presence in the area, but we can't just send in troops. If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now."

Instead, they created another Vietnam in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was worth an endless war and the death of thousands.

But getting the guy who carried out the largest attack on the United States in history is too risky.

Where the HELL do these clowns get their priorities?

"We'll get (bin Laden) eventually, just not now," he said.

And they don't think this guy is planning any attacks while they blithely figure they'll get him "eventually"?

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Why win Ohio when you can steal it?
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"Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.

Party officials say their effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the Nov. 2 elections.

Election officials in other swing states, from Arizona to Wisconsin and Florida, say they are bracing for similar efforts by Republicans to challenge new voters at polling places, reflecting months of disputes over voting procedures and the anticipation of an election as close as the one in 2000.

Ohio election officials said they had never seen so large a drive to prepare for Election Day challenges. They said they were scrambling yesterday to be ready for disruptions in the voting process as well as alarm and complaints among voters. Some officials said they worried that the challenges could discourage or even frighten others waiting to vote. "

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." - 2 Thessalonians 2:11

One of the people who was interviewed was afraid to tell the truth about it.

[Althia] Turner, who said she has avoided reporters for years, agreed to be interviewed only after phoning her pastor for advice.

When she hung up the phone, she turned to a reporter: "My pastor says if you found me, I should tell the truth."

Even then, Turner was hesitant. About 15 minutes into the interview, she asked if the reporter would accompany her to her pastor's home because she needed her support. Once there, she talked in detail for the first time while her pastor, Theresa Times, of Bless One Ministries, and five people who had been attending a prayer meeting listened.

Now, I don't think this woman was threatened by Bush's thugs or anything like that.

I think she's somehow afraid that telling the truth about Bush to a reporter is WRONG. A sin.

And if that's the case, Bush's followers are even more screwed up than I thought. They have a totally delusional view about who Bush is, and what he is.

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PULLgate
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In 1973, George W. Bush did some community service for the Professional United Leadership League (P.U.L.L.), an inner city poverty program. Bush likes to brag about his volunteer work to show what a sensitive person he is.

"I was working full time for an inner-city poverty program known as Project P.U.L.L. My friend John White ... asked me to come help him run the program. ... I was intrigued by John's offer. ... Now I had a chance to help people." - George W. Bush, A Charge To Keep

"Well, a wonderful man named John White asked me to come and work with him in a project in the Third Ward of Houston. If we don't help others, if we don't step up and lead, who will?" - George W. Bush, Republican National Convention

But the wagging tongues of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy have long been wondering if this work was somehow required, since - let's face it - working for an inner city poverty group seems just slightly out of character for the Crown Prince Of The Let-Them-Eat-Cake Crowd.

"But White's administrative assistant and others associated with P.U.L.L., speaking on the record for the first time, say Bush was not helping to run the program and White had not asked Bush to come aboard. Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary co-chairman of the program at the time, and Bush was unpaid. They say White told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble but White never gave them specifics.

"We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time," said Althia Turner, White's administrative assistant.

They also contradict what he did while he was there:

"My friend John White ... asked me to come help him run the program." - George W. Bush

"He didn't help run the program. I was in charge of him and I wouldn't say I helped run the program, either," said David Anderson, a recreational director at P.U.L.L.

In fairness, by all accounts Bush worked hard while he was there.

But somehow I don't think it's a coincidence that the time Bush spent doing forced community service for P.U.L.L. is around the same time that he disappeared from the Alabama National Guard.

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Friday, October 22, 2004

Ignorance: Bush's friend.
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"Supporters of President Bush are less knowledgeable about the president's foreign policy positions and are more likely to be mistaken about factual issues in world affairs than voters who back John F. Kerry, a survey released yesterday indicated.

A large majority of self-identified Bush voters polled believe Saddam Hussein provided "substantial support" to Al Qaeda, and 47 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US invasion. Among the president's supporters, 57 percent queried think international public opinion favors Bush's reelection, and 51 percent believe that most Islamic countries support "US-led efforts to fight terrorism."

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Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004
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Armageddon came early for George Bush this year, and he was not ready for it. His long-awaited showdowns with my man John Kerry turned into a series of horrible embarrassments that cracked his nerve and demoralized his closest campaign advisers. They knew he would never recover, no matter how many votes they could steal for him in Florida, where the presidential debates were closely watched and widely celebrated by millions of Kerry supporters who suddenly had reason to feel like winners.

Kerry came into October as a five-point underdog with almost no chance of winning three out of three rigged confrontations with a treacherous little freak like George Bush. But the debates are over now, and the victor was clearly John Kerry every time. He steamrollered Bush and left him for roadkill.

Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all. The tide turned early, in Coral Gables, when Bush went belly up less than halfway through his first bout with Kerry, who hammered poor George into jelly. It was pitiful. . . . I almost felt sorry for him, until I heard someone call him "Mister President," and then I felt ashamed.

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He just doesn't get it.
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I get letters.
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"Before I say anything, I want you to know that we are on the same side: I think Bush has been a simply terrible President, and I will certainly vote for Mr. Kerry. But sometimes too many of those who are liberals, or progressives if you prefer, are adopting the tactics of the right, using anger and invective to make a point. This is not a good idea. Aside from my discomfort at imitating such people, I think such tactics may be less than effective and may only succeed in turning people off to what you are saying." - Larry K.

Larry, ten years ago I would have agreed with you, but I honestly believe that different situations call for different tactics. As you point out, the tactics of the right-wing have been pretty low - "anger and invective," as you say. The problem is that anger and invective have succeeded in giving them the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the Presidency. Those tactics have BEEN effective. And that isn't abstract: because of it, they are able to effect public policy in a way that has a negative impact upon millions and millions of people. Because they weren't afraid to use anger and invective. If a little anger and invective - very justified anger, in my opinion - can wind up having a positive impact on millions and millions of people, I certainly think that's worth it.

And forgetting the sheer pragmatism of tactics, on a personal level I have very hard time being polite to people who are either totally delusional or lying to my face. These guys look you in the eye and justify absolutely everything this President does, no matter how transparently horrible it is. Every lie is spun away. Every error is denied and then excused. We are standing in the pouring rain listening to people who SWEAR that the sun is shining. It's not POSSIBLE to have a reasonable conversation with that. Reasonable conversation assumes that we are talking to reasonable people, and we aren't. It isn't possible for someone in the reality-based community to have an intelligent discussion with inhabitants of the fantasy-based community. At least, that's how I see it.

Thanks very much for your note.

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Thursday, October 21, 2004

Operation Truth
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If you're in the New York City area, these guys are worth your support. In my humble opinion.

Want to party and help Operation Truth? Then join us for Operation ROCK, a benefit concert this Saturday, October 23, at New York's legendary Joe's Pub.

Top NYC bands are taking the stage, including Chris Brown and Kate Fenner, LadyBug and the Ions, the Laura Thomas Band, Mahogany and State Radio. Plus don't miss guest appearances by Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder of Air America Radios' 'Majority Report' and Rachel Maddow of 'Unfiltered'. Your ticket also gets you into the afterparty with DJ Stylus, who has famously collaborated with Prince! SPC Robert Acosta, the star of our most recent TV Ad, will also be joining us!

DETAILS
Music starts at 6:00pm, October 23rd. Joe's Pub is located at 425
Lafayette Street, between 4th Street and Astor Place.
Tickets are $20
and all proceeds benefit Operation Truth.
Reservations: 212.539.8778

"US President George W. Bush has made the capture of the most wanted man in Iraq, Islamic militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, an increasingly important part of his policy as he seeks reelection on November 2."

Before the war, Bush tried to tie Zarqawi to Hussein, but that was Bushian bullshit: as John Kerry has pointed out, Zarqawi operated in the North, in Kurd-controlled terrirtory, an area where Hussein exercised no real power. Zarqawi was in Iraq, but had no ties to Hussein.

"Before the war, the administration claimed Zarqawi's presence in Iraq was proof of an Al Qaeda-Saddam connection. That was wrong," Kerry said. Kerry said that Zarqawi, who Sunday pledged alliegance to Osama bin Laden and is believed to be behind the beheadings of western hostages in Iraq, had been operating in Kurdish areas in northeastern Iraq. 'He and his terrorist allies were reportedly producing Ricin, a horrific biological weapon. We could have but did not take them out. That was a terrible mistake this administration has never explained."

March 2, 2004

"But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.

"The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.

“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.

Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.

The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq."

In other words, if what we wanted was Zarqawi, we could have gotten him without starting a war.

We didn't go to war to get Zarqawi, we IGNORED Zarqawi so we could go to war.

The Bush Administration shows a very consistent pattern in its was on terrorism: when we have our hands on REAL terrorists, we let them go.

The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.

"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."

"The existence of the letter was first reported Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times in an opinion column by Robert Scheer."

It amazes me that the press lets Bush get away with this image as the Guy Who Never Bases Decisions on Politics, when he makes decisions on the basis of nothing BUT politics. He is more political than any President of my lifetime. He makes decisions on how to conduct a WAR on the basis of politics, he makes LIFE AND DEATH decisions on the basis of politics, and he makes decisions on how to handle an ATTACK ON AMERICA on the basis of politics.

Bush is a totally political creature with neither a moral center nor a genuine principle that he can call his own.

"The president never made such a comment," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Senior Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes, a longtime confidant of the president, said she was "certain" Bush would not have said anything like that to Robertson. "Perhaps he misunderstood, but I've never heard the president say any such thing," Hughes said on CNN's "Inside Politics.

Unfortunately for The Gang That Couldn't Keep Its Lies Straight, there is evidence that Robertson is telling the truth. For one thing, he said the same thing back in June, and the press just didn't pick up on it:

ROBERTSON: Well, I don‘t think God‘s opposed to the war, necessarily, but it was a danger sign. I felt very uneasy about it from the very get-go. Whenever I heard about it, I knew it was going to be trouble. I warned the president. I only met with him once. I said, You better prepare the American people for some serious casualties. And he said, Oh, no, our troops are, you know, so well protected, we don‘t have to worry about that. But it has been messy. And I think we‘re going to come out of it, though. I think we‘ll have a free Iraq. But it certainly has been a mess so far. - Hardball, June 22, 2004

And even more damning, it's part of the official record that Robertson and Bush met in February of 2003, and they certainly did discuss casualties:

ROBERTSON: Connie, I have, over the last year or so, been quite concerned about entering into this war. We should have gone in after him in the Gulf War I. This thing is fraught with danger. And I think we need to understand that. I told the president that just recently, that we have got to prepare the American people for civilian casualties, for possibly of casualties, for gassing, for various chemical weapons against them. - Interview with Connie Chung, February 27, 2003

Although Robertson didn't get specific in the interview with Connie Chung, why would Robertson feel the need to tell Bush that he should prepare for casualities? Why would he go out his way to tell Chung that he told the President that he should be? The tacit assumption behind his statement is that he was informing Bush of something Bush disagreed with.

If this one gets any play in the press, look for the Bushies to start screaming about lesbians or something in an effort to distract attention.

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Letter, Boston Globe
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October 21, 2004

AT A Bush rally in suburban New Jersey while Laura Bush was speaking, Sue Niederer, whose son was killed in Iraq in February, spoke out against the killings and the war. She wore a T-shirt with the words "President Bush You Killed My Son." She was handcuffed, arrested, and hauled off by police ("In N.J., Laura Bush stumps for spouse on Democratic turf," Sept. 17, Page 17). This incident truly frightens me.

As upset as I've been with Bush administration policies, this was a jolting wake-up call. What happened to freedom of speech, the right to protest? Don't we see what's happening right here on our own soil?

Democracy is being eroded, bit by bit, in our own country by the Bush administration while it pretends to be fighting for democracy in Iraq. It uses democracy as one excuse for an unprovoked invasion of another country while it tramples our civil rights back here at home. Talk about diversion. This is another example of this regime saying one thing and doing another to coldly advance its hidden agendas.

This administration continues to spew out lies -- Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, our GIs will be welcomed as liberators -- and refuses to admit what a mess it has gotten us into.

So many innocent lives have been lost; the deficit has skyrocketed. The Bush-Cheney marketers are masters of deceit, distortion, and manipulation. Skillfully using their fear tactics, they're hoping they have lulled the American people into mindless marionettes marching to the tune of "My president right or wrong."

Wake up, America! We can't be so obtuse that we can't see that Bush's unrelenting thirst for power is destroying us at home and abroad in the eyes of the world. We've lost the respect of other nations. They see what's happening. Why can't we?

Let's break this vicious cycle and prove to the world that Americans cannot be hoodwinked another four years by this imperialist megalomaniac and his cronies.

Democracy, which is hanging by a thread in this beloved country of ours, still gives us the right to choose our leaders. If we have to endure four more years of this out-of-control administration, I'm not sure we will still have that right.

DEBORAH C. WINSLOW
Lenox

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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

The Big Dog is in the House.
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Just in case you aren't on John Kerry's email list, this went out to those who are:

With some people already casting their ballots, the election of 2004 is now underway, and nothing less than the future of our country is at stake. This is the moment for every Democrat to look in the mirror and ask: "What more can I do to help?"

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of a special group of Democratic donors, every dollar you donate today, to the kickoff of our Countdown to Victory Matching Fund, will be matched, doubling the impact of your Countdown to Victory donation.

With so much on the line, and with so little time remaining, I couldn't let a critical moment like this pass without personally calling on you to act before it is too late. I know how hard you're working, how much you've already given of yourself. But we've got to dig even deeper between now and November 2.

These closing days of the campaign are exciting, no doubt about it. But with so much riding on the outcome of this election, we need to make sure our energy translates into effective action. Every one of us has a chance to play a vital role in deciding who wins.

So please donate now and double the impact of your contribution.

We must leave no stone unturned between now and the moment the last poll closes on November 2. The Republicans are pouring millions of dollars into baseless attacks against John Kerry and the Democrats because they know that's the only way they can win. Don't let them get away with it.

John Kerry, John Edwards, and other Democrats locked in tough races are pulling out all the stops. They're driving toward victory -- but they need your help. We've got two weeks to go and not a minute to waste. Your immediate contribution can help fund final media buys, voter contact, and GOTV operations. These are the efforts that are going to win this election, and we cannot do it without your support.

Let's go for it. America's future is on the ballot this year. Let's use these final days of the campaign to win the victory that is within our grasp, and secure the kind of future we want for our children. I'm counting on you.

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton

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Bush Relatives for Kerry
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"Bush Relatives for Kerry" grew out of a series of conversations that took place between a group of people that have two things in common: they are all related to George Walker Bush, and they are all voting for John Kerry. As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don't vote for our cousin!

I originally interpreted this headline as "Iowa says: You BOTH suck!"

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WTF?
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"Karl Rove laid himself on the line for his boss, the president of the United States.

That is, he laid himself under the wheels of Air Force One on Monday. Reason: Unclear, but it seems to have been an inside joke between Rove and President George W. Bush.

Returning to the aircraft after Mr. Bush's foreign policy speech, the two men traded words. As Mr. Bush climbed the stairs, his top political adviser set his briefcase down in front of the tires and stretched out on the ground with his back to the wheels."

The pilot of that plane must have GREAT self-control.

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"We're not going to have any casualties"
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In fairness to Bush (and you know I always bend over backwards to be fair to Bush), Pat Robertson is a total lunatic whose word on any given subject is worth less than his toupee.

Nonetheless, this is what he said:

The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."

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Iran Endorses Bush
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"The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's axis of evil label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists and threats of sanctions over the country's nuclear ambitions.

Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body."

Some people wonder if Iran may be attempting reverse psychology. I think they just realize that Bush is all empty swagger, and only deals with nations that AREN'T any threat.

They'd rather deal with a loud adolescent bully than a grown man with a backbone. Simple, really.

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Projection
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"Instead of articulating a vision or positive agenda for the future, the senator is relying on a litany of complaints and old-style scare tactics." - George W. Bush, October 20, 2004

"The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists ending up in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever before been used against us--biological agents or a nuclear weapon or a chemical weapon of some kind to be able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans." - Dick Cheney, October 20, 2004

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Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Sinclair takes on Water
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"REUTERS - Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. , the nation's largest owner of TV stations, said Tuesday it would only air part of a documentary critical of Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam war record, as critics demanded it cancel the broadcast altogether or face legal action."

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No Comment
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"As an advertiser on select Sinclair stations, we have repeatedly requested a statement from Sinclair Broadcasting to explain their intentions and convince us they are not violating any FCC or FEC regulations with the airing of 'Stolen Honor'. As of Monday, October 18th, we have not received a response. This concerns us because we do not have the information we need to effectively answer the concerns of our customers. So, effective immediately, Whataburger, Inc. has pulled its advertising buy from Sinclair Broadcasting until more clarity can be gained on this topic and we can feel confident their actions are not in conflict with our ethics or the legal requirements of the FCC and FEC.

Those soldiers who have been given "stop-loss" orders to stay in the military past their agreed-upon end of enlistment aren't being asked to stay - they're being ordered to stay.

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Feeling the Draft
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"Those who are worrying about a revived draft are in the same position as those who worried about a return to budget deficits four years ago, when President Bush began pushing through his program of tax cuts. Back then he insisted that he wouldn't drive the budget into deficit - but those who looked at the facts strongly suspected otherwise. Now he insists that he won't revive the draft. But the facts suggest that he will."

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Light-Bulb Joke
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How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

None. There’s nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn’t work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness. - John Cleese

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Reality-based
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If you look above, you will see a new subtitle. For those who don't get the reference, here is a remarkable - and rather chilling - passage from Ron Suskind's New York Times Magazine article about the Bush administration, "Without a Doubt":

"In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

As I've said before, this bears a remarkable resemblance to the characters in C.S. Lewis stories who have sacrificed their intellect to demonic forces.

I think we should all get T-shirts that say "reality-based community."

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Monday, October 18, 2004

And Archie Bunker faulted him for being a bigot.
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Lies "R" Us
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This time it's Rudy Giuliani's turn:

"You can't stop all outsourcing...I've never promised that. I'm not going to, because that would be pandering. You can't. But what you can do is create a fair playing field, and that's what I'm talking about. - John Kerry, 2nd presidential debate, 10/8/04

Outsourcing is going to happen. I've acknowledged that in union halls across the country. I've had shop stewards stand up and say, will you promise me you're going to stop all this outsourcing? And I've looked them in the eye and I've said, no, I can't do that. What I can promise you is that I will make the playing field as fair as possible. - John Kerry, 3rd presidential debate, October 13, 2004

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Bill O'Reillyville
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ha ha

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From your mouth to God's ears, Eric
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"Sure Kerry creamed him, but remember it matters not at all who won the debate. What matters is who wins the election. Slates’s election tracker has Bush winning the electoral college by two votes, giving Kerry no bounce whatever in the third debate. The L.A. Times also has Bush ahead, though it is not calling it. I am going to go on record here saying forget the polls, which were wrong last time and will be wrong again this time. If Bush somehow wins, it will require an even bigger steal than four years ago. Nobody who voted for Gore is voting for Bush. The Democrats have registered millions of new voters who don’t show up in the polls. Idiots who share Ralph Nader’s belief that there is not a “dime’s worth of difference” between the two candidates are far fewer than last time around. And lots more people have cell phones and can’t be reached by pollsters. I’m not saying Bush can’t win; I’m just saying I don’t think he can win honestly." - Eric Alterman

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Half a bias is better than none.
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Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post's media watchdog who is less successful at hiding his own bias than almost anyone on the planet, showed his own lack of balance again with this:

"On Fox's "Special Report," the comments made about Kerry over the summer were an eye-opening 5 to 1 negative. In September Kerry fared only slightly better, moving from 17 percent to 21 percent positive. Is that because Fox leans Republican -- or provides a balance to the more pro-Kerry networks?" [emphasis mine]

Notice that Kurtz DOESN'T do something that's very obvious, and which would actually answer his question: he DOESN'T provide stats for those supposedly pro-Kerry networks. You know why? Because providing stats would prove that the networks AREN'T pro-Kerry, and Howard Kurtz knows it.

The difference between Fox and the networks isn't that the networks are left-biased while Fox is right-biased. Right-wingers LOVE to pretend that that's the case, but it isn't. The difference is that Fox's right-wing bias is blatant and the networks' right-wing bias is subtle. That's all.

So, how about it Howard? Let's see some stats for this supposed "liberal media."

Sunday, October 17, 2004

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What amazes me about right-wingers is that they don't care HOW much the bullshit smells - they consider it their duty to spread it anyway.

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Musicians' Endorsments
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While I don't think endorsements by musicians make much difference in voting - I have enormous respect for Bruce Springsteen, but I certainly wouldn't change my vote if he disagreed with me - I find the difference in sheer quality and musical respect between those who endorse Bush and those who endorse Kerry to be genuinely enormous. In this corner, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp. And in THIS corner - Britney Spears and Wayne Newton.

I would have HOPED, though, that the endorsement of classic representatives of Americana like Springsteen and Mellencamp would have persuaded the right-wingers to tone down the "unpatriotic" bullshit. But no chance: right-wingers aren't happy unless they're spreading the excrement thick and far.

RatherGate proved that bloggers are the best fact checkers. That is why we are writing to a few bloggers asking for help.

Let's spring to action before these documents needlessly tarnish the reputation of our Commander and Chief. You know the drill: analyze the handwriting, search for factual errors, and post your discoveries.

But after visiting the site, I realize that it's some of the best satire I've ever seen. In fact, it's so good that it takes quite a while to realize that it IS satire.

Instead, he got mad at Kerry for calling Mary a child of God.

We know which one of those pisses Dick Cheney off.

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Without a doubt
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There has been buzz about this Ron Suskind NY Times article for days. Here it is, and it's scary:

''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett [Reagan's Domestic Policy Advisor] said, ''I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.'' Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say: ''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . .

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Flu shot
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Chaos has erupted on the flu shot lines. No surprise: that's what always happens when a commodity is genuinely precious - in fact, a necessity - and there just isn't enough to go around. So it will probably get worse.

"Seventy-year-old Homer Fink spent eight hours sitting next to a supermarket Halloween display for a flu shot that he wasn't able to get at five other places. The scene was repeated across the country as the nation's suddenly limited supply of flu vaccine was drained.

In state after state, people lined up at pharmacies and supermarkets in the middle of the night: old folks with oxygen tanks, sleeping children bundled up in strollers, people in wheelchairs. In the San Francisco area, a 79-year-old woman died Thursday from head injuries after collapsing from exhaustion. She had waited four hours in a flu shot line with hundreds of other seniors. Two elderly women in Concord, Calif., were hospitalized after collapsing in a vaccine line."

"British health officials said Friday that their American counterparts were informed in mid-September that problems at a drug manufacturing plant in northwest England could disrupt influenza vaccine supplies to the United States.

Records at Britain's Department of Health show that the plant's owner, Chiron Corp., warned officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency on Sept. 13 that potential contamination problems remained unresolved at the plant, according to Alison Langley, a senior spokeswoman at the department.

The British account is at odds with statements by U.S. health officials that they were caught by surprise. "

Is it my imagination, or is this kind of crap a distinct pattern with this administration?

Needless to say, the Bushies deny that they were informed by the British, even thought the British, um, have records that prove it. Surprise, surprise. In for a dime, in for a dollar. They've lied about everything, why stop now?

The lack of a vaccine will kill more people this year than died on 9/11.

Bush doesn't care about that: there is no glamour in it. There's no opportunity for him to dress up in a flight suit, blow things up or swagger around like a bad actor in a "B" Western.

For the tiniest fraction of the money that Bush squandered in his giveaway to the rich, he could have placed an order for enough flu vaccine to cover every single person in the country. Every single one.

But why would he care? He and his cronies have no shortages. They get all the medicine they want.

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Saturday, October 16, 2004

EVERYBODY knows how lousy Bush is.
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Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to former President George H.W. Bush, was highly critical of the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview published this week, saying the current President Bush was "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Iraq was a "failing venture" and the administration's unilateralist approach had harmed relations between Europe and the United States.

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Jon Stewart Bitch Slaps the Media
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It's a sad, sad state of affairs when our most responsible journalist is actually a comedian.

Tucker Carlson: You always scold people like this at dinner at your house?
Jon Stewart: If they have a show that's as stupid as this one.
Tucker: You know, you're not as fun as you are on your tv show.
Jon: You know what, you're just as big a dick as you are on your tv show.

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The draft
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Poor, poor pitiful Bush. He keeps insisting that there will be no draft and nobody believes him. Can't imagine why.

John Kerry has gone public, and has stated that there is a "great potential" for a draft. That's because Kerry has figured out that Bush would rather discuss ANYTHING at this point than the potential for a draft.

None of the media seem to have noticed that Kerry is basically calling Bush a liar without actually using the word.

The GOP is asking the Rock the Vote group to "cease and desist" its suggestion that the government may bring back a military draft. "Your "Draft Your Friends" campaign is being conducted with malicious intent and reckless disregard for the truth," Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie told the nonpartisan group in a letter Wednesday.

I have some news for you. Just because President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld, and for that matter Senator Kerry, say that there is not going to be a draft does not make it so. Just because Congress holds a transparently phony vote against the draft does not mean there isn't going to be one. Anyone who thinks that the youth of America are going to take a politician's word on this topic is living on another planet.

Good for them.

But the last word on the subject is from Congressman Jim Ryan (D - Ohio - Actually possesses balls). This bit of his speech should be turned into a commercial by the DNC. It is absolutely devastating. Go watch it.

"We aren't trying to scare kids. This President's foreign policy is what's scaring the kids of this country. People say, why are people believing [that there will be a draft]? Why aren't people believing it when they say there won't be?

"It's the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. The same people who told us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The same people who told that we were going to be able to use the oil for reconstruction money. The same people who told us that we'd be greeted as liberators, not occupiers. The same poeple - the same president who told us that the Taliban is gone. The same president who told us that Poland is our ally two days before they pulled out. The same president who told us that Iraq is going just great. The same President who tells us that the economy is going just great. The same people who told us that tax cuts would create millions of jobs. The same people who told us that the medicare program would only cost 400 billion dollars when it really cost 540 billion dollars.

"So please forgive us for not believing what you're saying. Not one thing - not ONE THING - about this war that has been told to the American people has been true. Not one thing. Bremer says we need more troops; the Pentagon says we need more troops, and this President can't get them from the international community. There's only one option left. Let's be honest with the American people."

As has been pointed out many times, the term "pro-life" is rather selective, and often used by people who are only pro certain aspects of life.

I am a Christian ethicist, and trained in statistical analysis. I am consistently pro-life. My son David is one witness. For my family, "pro-life" is personal. My wife caught rubella in the eighth week of her pregnancy. We decided not to terminate, to love and raise our baby. David is legally blind and severely handicapped; he also is a blessing to us and to the world.

I look at the fruits of political policies more than words. I analyzed the data on abortion during the George W. Bush presidency. There is no single source for this information - federal reports go only to 2000, and many states do not report - but I found enough data to identify trends. My findings are counterintuitive and disturbing.

Abortion was decreasing. When President Bush took office, the nation's abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4% decline during the 1990s. This was an average decrease of 1.7% per year, mostly during the latter part of the decade. (This data comes from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute's studies).

Here's a great chant that Mrs. Ignatz shared with me yesterday, to be yelled by the faithful wherever possible:

What's that thing on Bush's back?
It's the monkey called Iraq!

Ouch.

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Vote
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Krugman has a piece today about Republican efforts to block and suppress votes, which goes into more detail about what has already been linked and posted. I think this is a terribly important issue. Republican efforts to block and suppress votes have been going on for years, and it is hostile to absolutely everything I was taught this country stood for. Perhaps I am the victim of nostalgic rose-colored glasses, but when I was younger, both parties encouraged EVERYONE to vote. NO more. Now, one party encourages, and one parties discourages.

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Thursday, October 14, 2004

What's so funny?
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SWILLs
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I know, I know - who gives a royal crap about the Swift Boat Lying Liars anymore?

Well, the nail is in the coffin. Nightline had a bright idea: go to Vietnam and ask the villagers who were there what actually happened in those battles where Kerry received a Silver Star. So they did. And the Vietnamese who were there back Kerry point for point:

That account is disputed by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill, author of "Unfit for Command," who maintains in his book that the statement "is simply false. There was little or no fire."

Villagers say this is what they saw: "Firing from over here. Firing from over there. Firing from the boat," Vo Thi Vi told Nightline. She was only a couple hundred yards away when a Swift boat turned and approached the shore, she said, adding that the boat was unleashing a barrage of gunfire as it approached.

But they have no problem remembering Ba Thang, the man who has been dismissed by Kerry's detractors as "a lone, wounded, fleeing, young Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description comes from "Unfit for Command," by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill.)

"No, this is not correct," Nguyen Thi Tuoi, 77, told ABC News. "He wore a black pajama. He was strong. He was big and strong. He was about 26 or 27."

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Georgie says:
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"We're increasing the border security of the United States. We've got 1,000 more Border Patrol agents on the Southern border. We're using new equipment, we're using unmanned vehicles to spot people coming across." - Debate Transcript

Don't you feel safe knowing that the border is guarded by unmanned vehicles?

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One Party Wants You to Vote; One Party Does Not
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George Bush repeatedly talks about the need to spread freedom around the world. However, here at home, his own campaign has engaged in a nationwide effort to keep people from casting votes. Across the country, in important swing state after important swing state, Republicans want to reduce the number of people who vote in the upcoming election:

By contrast, Democrats have worked tirelessly to register as many new voters as possible and increase national participation in the political process nationwide. In state after state, Democrats have registered tens of thousands more new voters than Republicans. One party wants you to vote; one party does not. This is something voters need to know.

How screwed up ARE these people?

(Note: the above is not the White House page, it's a parody page)

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Sappho Strikes Again
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There is a minor hue and cry from the right wing. They are outraged - outraged - that Kerry mentioned last night that Cheney's daughter was a lesbian. HORRORS!

Kerry and Bush were asked whether or not gay people were gay by choice. Bush said he didn't know. Kerry said no. Kerry said:

"We're all God's children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice."

Well, the right-wingers just about shit in their pants.

The most notable was mom Lynne Cheney:

"Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick."

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Notice the assumption behind the outrage: they obviously believe that Kerry said something bad about Mary Cheney. But of course, he didn't. Mary Cheney isn't in the closet. Mary Cheney doesn't think it's something to be ashamed of. Mary Cheney has been an activist, for goodness' sake.

But the right-wing CLEARLY believes that Kerry mentioned the dirty family secret. The one we don't talk about. "Shhh! You aren't supposed to mention that Aunt Hortense is addicted to morphine. Don't you KNOW that?"

I feel sorry for Mary Cheney. It is so obvious that her own parents find her sexuality shameful. Why else would Lynne Cheney be so angry that Kerry mentioned it? And mentioned it in the context of saying that there was nothing wrong with Mary?